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Translation to be reviewed. This page is a translation of the French original, which remains the reference. Read the French version

Clairac

History

“Ville sans roy, soldats sans peur” (Town without king, soldiers without fear): the motto of Clairac, recalled by the Société des amis de Clairac. [B]

Timeline of Clairac

From the abbey to the Refuge, then Claude Martin’s life and the gatherings of descendants: each date has its source, and the lab’s findings their status. Choose a period to read it on its own; the details of Claude Martin’s life are in his timeline.

From the abbey to the Reformation (before 1685)

  • Legend — Charlemagne is said to have founded the abbey in memory of a miraculously lengthened day, hence the name Clairac (clara luce, “clear light”). This is a legend told by a 12th-century chronicle. [W1]
  • 767? — A charter of Pepin the Short in favour of the monks of Clairac was long quoted as the origin of the abbey; it is now regarded as a forgery. Claude Martin dated the founding of the Benedictine abbey to “around the year 1000”. [W1] [W14]
  • Middle Ages — The abbey is among the richest in the Agenais; Bertrand de Goth, the future Pope Clement V, stays there. [W9]
  • 1530 — Gérard Roussel, close to Marguerite d’Angoulême, is placed at the head of the abbey; he encourages the ideas of the Reformation without leaving the Catholic Church. [W1] [W11]
  • 1568 — Abbot Geoffroy de Caumont marries in the abbey church; the abbey is partly abandoned. Clairac is then one of the centres of the Reformation in Aquitaine. [W1]
  • 1604 — On 22 September, Henri IV grants the abbey’s revenues to the chapter of St John Lateran in Rome: the origin of the title of honorary canon of the Lateran held by French heads of state. [W1]
  • 1621 — Louis XIII besieges the Protestant town, whose motto is “Ville sans Roy, soldats sans peur” (A town without a king, soldiers without fear). After its surrender, three leaders are executed; the poet Théophile de Viau, baptised a Protestant in Clairac, describes this violence in a sonnet. [B] [W1] [W2]
  • 1637 — First lease “to plant toubac” found by Claude Martin in the notaries’ deeds (8 December); Clairac is among the first places in France where tobacco was grown. [W3] [W6]
  • 1676 — Confirmed Hélie de Granier, a “gentilhomme verrier” (glassmaking nobleman) born in Gabre, a Protestant, lives at the Mauvesin glassworks in the Ariège: a record Claude Martin noted for his research on the glassmakers (record).

Revocation and Refuge (1685-1750)

  • 1685 or 1686 — The first Protestant church of Clairac, on today’s place Aristide-Briand, is razed: on 8 November 1685 according to the plaque placed in rue Gambetta in 2017, in 1686 according to the newsletter of the Amis de Clairac (2018). Date to be checked. [B]
  • 1685 — Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Between 1680 and 1715, some 180,000 Protestants left France. [W12]
  • 1686-1688 — Refugees from Clairac pass through Frankfurt in small groups, coming from Lausanne, and leave together for Holland, according to the relief registers recorded by Claude Martin (the networks of departure).
  • 1688 — Confirmed Paul Brochequin, a tailor, and Jean Pigos, a dyer, from Clairac, are given relief in Frankfurt on 2 July and leave for Holland (in the footsteps of Paul Brochequin).
  • 1690-1711 — The Clairac notaries record wills and marriage contracts in which families name a relative who had “sorti du royaume” (left the kingdom), according to the deeds recorded by Claude Martin (those who stayed).
  • 1698 — Confirmed In Amsterdam, the notice of marriage of “Pierre Dutilh van Clairac”, merchant (record). In London, Jean-François Fauquier, born in Clairac, is naturalised (record).
  • 1699 — The “Rôle des nouveaux convertis de la paroisse de Saint-Pierre-de-Clairac” (roll of new converts) lists the Protestants who stayed and were forced to abjure; it is kept at the Archives départementales de Lot-et-Garonne (G H 129). [W30]
  • 1701 — Confirmed In Dublin, Jeanne Coudere, from Clairac, marries Pierre Jougla, also from Clairac (record).
  • 1701 — Probable Louis Latané is minister of South Farnham, in Virginia; only Claude Martin says he came from Clairac (record).
  • 1704 — Confirmed Pierre Peiret, minister of the French Church of New York, dies there on 1 September; according to a note by Claude Martin, his wife, Marguerite de Grenier Latour, came from Gabre: the glassmakers’ diaspora from the Ariège, distinct from the Clairac list (record).
  • 1715 — Montesquieu marries Jeanne de Lartigue, a Protestant who owns the Vivens estate in Clairac; he marries off his daughter Denise there in 1745. [W7] [W8]
  • 1718 — Confirmed Jacques Pégus, from Clairac, enrols for Louisiana before a Clairac notary (record).
  • 1727 — Confirmed In Dublin, Jean Carmentrand, “native of Clerac”, is received into the Reformed church (record).
  • 1747-1760 — In Rotterdam, people from Clairac are still marrying one another in 1747, 1754 and 1760 (the networks of departure).
  • 1750 — The Chevalier de Vivens, from Clairac, suggests the name “brontometer” for Jacques de Romas’s device measuring electricity in the air; around 1752-1753, Romas carries out his electric kite experiments at his home, Barry. [W4] [W5] [W13]

Clairac after the Refuge

  • 1807 — After freedom of worship returns (1789), a first Protestant church is built; it is rebuilt in the 1830s. [W2]
  • 1890 — On 20 July, the town council considers an offer of electric street lighting, Claude Martin relates. [W13]
  • 1958 — The painter Henri Maurousel gives the Maison de Japhet, where he had set up his “museum”, to the tourist office. [W7]
  • 1996 — The former abbey and the church of Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens are listed as historic monuments. [W1]
  • 2008 — The town’s motto is engraved on Place Viçoze during its renovation. [W1]
  • 2018 — On 2 June, study day “Clairac et la Réforme”, organised by the Société des amis de Clairac. [B] [W11]
  • 2021 — The Protestant church is listed as a historic monument (order of 15 March). [W2]

Claude Martin (1927-2018)

  • 1927 — Birth of Claude Martin. [A] (his timeline)
  • Adolescence — To be checked He copies notarial deeds in attics. [A] (his timeline)
  • Around 1945 — To be checked He sets off by bicycle to the Ariège in search of his mother’s family. (his timeline)
  • 1966 — To be checked Establishment of the Musée historique du Clairacais. [A] [B] (his timeline)
  • 1977 — To be checked Claude Martin’s lecture and article on the glassworks and glassmakers of Cabanes, published in the Pastourais bulletin (the reference).
  • 2018 — Death of Claude Martin. [B] (his timeline)
  • 2019 — Donation of a copy of his work to the Huguenot Library, in London. [C] (his timeline)

Gatherings of descendants

  • 1960s — The descendants of the emigrant families come to meet him. [A] (his timeline)
  • 1975 — Meeting of the descendants of the glassmaking gentlemen at Le Mas-d’Azil. [F] (his timeline)
  • 1978 — He organises in Clairac a gathering of descendants of emigrants. [A] (his timeline)
  • 2017 — Gathering of the Dutilh descendants in Clairac; plaque placed in rue Gambetta on 22 July. [B] [D] [E] (his timeline)

Sources differ about the siege: from 23 July to 4 August 1621, i.e. twelve days, according to Wikipedia [W1] [W2]; fifteen days of resistance, and sieges in 1621 and 1622, according to the presentation of the 2018 study day. [W11]

Claude Martin and Clairac

His father’s family had come from Clairac for generations (Martin, Clouzié, Jatz, Noguès). [A]

After his military service, he worked in the family fabric shop, then became chairman and managing director of the Société d’Électricité de Guyenne et Gasconne, housed in the old mill of Clairac. [A]

According to the exhibition panel, he could give the date of a baptism in 1621 or the witnesses of a marriage in 1674. [A]

His life Protestantism in Clairac

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Sources

  • [A] Exhibition panel “Claude Martin” (PDF, original document in French)
  • [B] Société des amis de Clairac, Newsletter no. 1, May 2018 (PDF, original document in French)
  • [C] Letter from the Huguenot Library (UCL, London), 12 November 2019 (PDF, original document in English)
  • [D] Catherine Darbord and Jean Escodo, “Une passionnante histoire de famille” (A fascinating family story), Sud Ouest (sudouest.fr, Tonneins section), 20 July 2017 — online article (article not reproduced on this site) — record in the archives
  • [E] Jérôme Souffrice, “Les Dutilh de retour aux sources” (The Dutilhs back to their roots), Sud Ouest (print edition, Lot-et-Garonne page), 22 July 2017 — no known online version (article not reproduced on this site) — record in the archives
  • [F] Association des descendants des gentilshommes verriers du Sud-Ouest (La Réveillée) (association of the descendants of the glassmaking gentlemen of the South-West), Circulaire n°119, May 2017, in particular Jean de Verbizier Latreyte, “René Gondran et la Réveillée”, p. 4 — no known online version (document not reproduced on this site) — record in the archives
  • [W1] French Wikipedia, « Clairac (Lot-et-Garonne) », accessed 5 October 2026: fr.wikipedia.org
  • [W2] French Wikipedia, « Temple protestant de Clairac », accessed 5 October 2026: fr.wikipedia.org
  • [W3] French Wikipedia, « Tabac en France », accessed 5 October 2026: fr.wikipedia.org
  • [W4] Wikipedia (in English), « Jacques de Romas », accessed 5 October 2026: en.wikipedia.org
  • [W5] Société des amis de Clairac, exhibition “Les enfants de Clairac”, sheet « François de Labat de Vivens, dit le chevalier de Vivens » (PDF), accessed 5 October 2026: amisdeclairac.com
  • [W6] Clair Morizet, « De Clairac au Clérac, pour une histoire du tabac à Clairac », La Mémoire du fleuve, no. 61, 2017, posted online by the Société des amis de Clairac (PDF), accessed 5 October 2026: amisdeclairac.com
  • [W7] Société des amis de Clairac, « Vagabondage artistique » : « Maison de Japhet » (painting by Fernand Castex), accessed 5 October 2026: amisdeclairac.com
  • [W8] Graves de Montesquieu tourist office, « Jeanne de Lartigue (1689-1770), épouse de Montesquieu », accessed 5 October 2026: www.si-graves-montesquieu.fr
  • [W9] PAJ Mag, « Cet été, racontez-nous la France #2 : le village de Clairac », 10 July 2020 (accessed 5 October 2026 by Claude Cowork; not reachable from the site’s server): www.paj-mag.fr
  • [W11] Calenda (OpenEdition), « Clairac et la Réforme », study day of 2 June 2018, accessed 5 October 2026: calenda.org
  • [W12] Musée protestant (in English), « The Huguenot Refuge », accessed 5 October 2026: museeprotestant.org
  • [W13] Claude Martin, « L’éclairage électrique à Clairac », Revue de l’Agenais, 1994, digitised by the Société des amis de Clairac (PDF), accessed 5 October 2026: amisdeclairac.com
  • [W14] Claude Martin, « Recherches sur la navigation et les gens de rivière à Clairac aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles », Revue de l’Agenais, 1978, digitised by the Société des amis de Clairac (PDF), accessed 5 October 2026: amisdeclairac.com
  • [W30] Archives départementales de Lot-et-Garonne, Protestants agenais de Henri IV à la Révolution, exhibition catalogue (Agen, 2007) (PDF), accessed 7 October 2026: archivesdepartementales.lotetgaronne.fr